John Lackey has 'a problem' with A-Rod playing during appeal

A Yankees-Red Sox series usually doesn't need any sub-plots to ramp up the drama but — with all of controversy surrounding Alex Rodriguez's doping charges and his subsequent suspension and appeal — one player just couldn't ignore spouting off about A-Rod's visit to Fenway Park this weekend.

Red Sox starter John Lackey doesn’t think Rodriguez should be playing while he appeals a lengthy suspension related to Major League Baseball’s investigation into Biogenesis and performance-enhancing drugs.

Interestingly enough, Lackey is scheduled to start Saturday’s game against A-Rod and the Yankees in Boston.

“I’ve got a problem with it. You bet I do,” Lackey told the Boston Globe on Thursday. “How is he still playing? He obviously did something and he’s playing. I’m not sure that’s right. … It’s pretty evident he’s been doing stuff for a lot of years I’ve been facing him.”

While 13 other players accepted lesser bans, Rodriguez is appealing his 211-game suspension. Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria has also voiced his displeasure with A-Rod being on the field during baseball’s playoff push.

Lackey admitted it’s been discussed in the Red Sox clubhouse, adding that some people have “strong feelings” on the topic.

“Sure, we talk about it,” Lackey said. “But talking to the media about it is a little bit different.”

Lackey’s comments should make an important three-game series at Fenway just a little more spectacular— as if it needed any more help. 

“He took me deep the first time I faced him as a rookie, and he admitted to doing stuff back then,” said Lackey, referring A-Rod’s prior admission to using PEDs while playing for the Texas Rangers from 2001-03. “There are a lot of things I want back from him.”

New York is 8.5 games behind first-place Boston in the AL East and six games in the wild card race.

Terry Francona won't take part in Fenway Park's 100th anniversary celebration

When the Red Sox celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park next Friday against the New York Yankees, the manager who was at the helm when Boston snapped their 86-year World Series championship drought won't be in the house.

Terry Francona, who unceremoniously departed from the Red Sox following last season's 8-21 finish, told the Boston Globe that he can't "just go back there and start hugging people and stuff without feeling a bit hypocritical."

Francona was the skipper of the 2004 Red Sox team which overcame a 0-3 deficit in the ALCS against the hated Yankees and swept the St. Louis Cardinals for the franchise's first championship since 1918— finally putting the Curse of the Bambino to rest.

Francona has traded places with new Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine.  Francona is now an analyst for ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball— a job Valentine held last year.

Yankees To Go Old School On Red Sox With Colon and Garcia

Everything is just like it was scripted.  The New York Yankees roll into Fenway Park to battle the Boston Red Sox for first place.  Sporting the same records (68-42), both teams are on sizzling hot streaks headed for a collision course to claim supremacy in the AL East.  In the Sox corner: Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and John Lackey.  For the Yankees:  CC Sabathia, Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon...huh?

Many people rolled their eyes when the two aging hurlers were picked up in the offseason for a song and slow dance and now, the two veterans figure mightily into the Yankees playoff hopes.

The 38 year-old Colon, who hadn't even pitched in the majors since 2009 while he was rehabbing his repaired his shoulder and elbow in the Dominican Republic, has been the Yankees real No. 2 starter this season after undergoing some kind of mysterious treatment for the injuries.

Garcia, 34, almost didn't make the team after spring training.

Now, the two elder statesmen are being called the adhesive which kept the shaky Yankees rotation from collapsing this season.  Funny, at the beginning of the season, skeptics talked like Colon and Garcia were ready for the glue factory. They were right.

Colon and Garcia wouldn't have been the first names mentioned, as the pitchers picking up the slack when Phil Hughes went down with dead arm for most of the season and the inconsistent A.J. Burnett went into his annual June/July funk-- but they were.